Parchment paper, who knew that there were so many uses for it. This month some of the AllRecipes Allstars were asked to try out Reynolds Parchment paper and make 2 different cookie recipes. This I did. These delicious cookies are shown…MORE

I am semi retired. My husband and I both retired at the same time and moved to Brookings to be near the ocean and my sil. I couldn't stand the thought of staying home and cleaning house all day so I got a part time job. I now work 3-4 days a week and it keeps me busy.

My favorite things to cook

I love to cook all kinds of things. I try out new recipes all the time and I even cook lots of things that I don't personally like, for instance I do not like sweets but I bake cakes, cookies and breads for my friends and neighbors. I am an Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassador(a voluntary position) and I’m not compensated for my work with Allrecipes.com. Products received from advertiser are only used for experienced-based reviews on AllRecipes.com - Thoughts from my Kitchen. The reviews, content and opinions expressed in this blog are purely the sole opinions of me, pelicangal aka Jan Elton

My favorite family cooking traditions

I always make beef wellington for Christmas.

My cooking triumphs

Winning the Best in show and the Judges choice ribbons along with 11 other blue ribbons at the 2006 Curry County Fair. They were for canning. My pickle relish won Judges choice and my pineapple marmalade won best in show.

My cooking tragedies

Too numerous to list here in only 1000 characters. But one is when my husband and I were first together, I stayed home from work to cook his favorite meal (spaghetti and meatballs). I had just tried to open a can of tomato sauce when the can exploded and I was covered with it. He came home at just that minute and he about burst an artery from laughing.

This was absolutely delicious. A real change from "regular" meatloaf. I followed the recipe exactly and used Johnsonville Chorizo. This is a fairly firm chorizo so I broke it up and swirled it in my food processor for a few seconds. Mixed other ingredients in and baked. Wow this was great. Will definitely make again. Thanks so much for the recipe

Sorry but have to disagree with the reviewer that said this smells like stinky feet. Cauliflower almost always has a very distinctive smell when cooked and that is what I smelled when I opened the bag. I really liked this dish. The cauliflower was the perfect texture for me, however, I would have liked more of the flavor of the sauce. Next time I will double the ingredients other than the cauliflower. If you are cooking other veggies, this would be a nice accompaniment when using up space in your sous vide cooker.